|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coalition planes hit Iraqi mobile radar system
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Coalition aircraft have struck a mobile radar system in Iraq's southern no-fly zone, the U.S. Central Command said. The strike took place at 6 a.m. EST Saturday south of Al Amarah, 165 miles southeast of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The hit came after Iraq moved the mobile radar into the zone, Central Command said. The radar provides tracking and guidance for surface-to-air missile systems that can target coalition aircraft. Precision-guided weapons were used in the strike, and target battle damage assessment is ongoing, Central Command said. The Iraqi News Agency reported that coalition aircraft fired Saturday on civilian and service facilities in Meisan, near Al Amarah, in the southern no-fly zone. There were no casualties, and the agency reported that the coalition aircraft flew 59 sorties. The last coalition strikes in the southern no-fly zone were Friday against unmanned communications facilities, also near Al Amarah. Iraqi anti-aircraft fire on coalition warplanes patrolling the no-fly zones increased tenfold last week, the Pentagon said. The increased activity on both sides comes as President Bush pledged to lead a military coalition into Iraq and forcibly disarm it of alleged weapons of mass destruction unless Baghdad follows U.N. resolutions aimed at disarment of such weapons -- chemical, nuclear and biological. The Baghdad government has repeatedly denied possessing such weapons. White House officials have said continued attempts by Iraq to target coalition aircraft amount to a "material breach" of the resolution that the U.N. Security Council passed November 8 calling for Iraq to disarm. U.N. Resolution 1441 states in part that "Iraq shall not take or threaten hostile acts directed against any representative or personnel of the United Nations ... or of any member state taking action to uphold any Council resolution." But U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last week that the attacks did not constitute a material breach. The no-fly zones have been a source of contention for Iraq since their establishment after the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and the Iraqi Foreign Ministry rejects the U.S. interpretation of the current resolution. U.S. and British aircraft have enforced no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq since the end of the Gulf War to protect Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by the Iraqi government. Beginning in December 1998, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began challenging the coalition enforcement by firing surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery and targeting them with radar. Central Command said that the Iraqis have fired on coalition aircraft more than 130 times so far this year.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
